The Eight
by cooopercrisp
Summary: Bill, Francis, Louis, and Zoey arrive on a train to a town in the southern US. Nick, Ellis, Rochelle, and Coach drive in Jimmy Gibbs Jr's stock car to that same town. When they meet, they have to learn how to get along in order to stay alive in a world where death is waiting at every turn.
1. Chapter 1

On a train traveling southbound down the countryside sat four survivors. One, an African American wearing a white button-down shirt, dark pants, and a red tie, was cleaning a submachine gun, taking occasional glances out the window at the hills and valleys they were passing. The second, a gruff man wearing a black vest and and dark jeans, was resting his eyes with his head leaning up against the wall of the train. The third, an aged man wearing a military jacket and a green beret, was looking up to the sky as he nursed a cigarette. The fourth, a college-aged girl with a red track jacket and blue jeans, was glaring at the old man. He knew he couldn't ignore her any longer, and sighed as he met her eyes.

"Zoey, I've explained this a thousand times," he said, "I wasn't about to risk our safety waiting for the three of them to catch up. They can hold out, they have the artillery. It was our job—no, my job—to ensure that the four of us got the hell out of that compound alive, and that's what I did."

"You left those people to die, Bill," Zoey said through gritted teeth, arms crossed. "We could've held out and waited for them, we had plenty of ammo. You weren't even looking, I saw those people trying to catch up to the train, their only chance of making it out alive just out of reach. I saw the fear in their eyes when they realized we were abandoning them. What you did was selfish and unjustifiable."

"For Christ's sake, Zoey, you think it was easy for me to make that choice? You know how many people I had to leave behind in Vietnam? I know what that fear looks like, I saw it every day during the war. Do not try to lecture me about how it feels to leave a man behind."

Zoey had no response, she just huffed and turned away from Bill. Her eyes cast instead over to the African American man, and she crawled over to him.

"Do you think what Bill did was right, Louis?" she asked him, not caring if Bill heard her complaining about him. "Do you think what he did was justified?"

"I trust Bill," Louis said. "He's never steered us wrong before. I feel horrible that we had to leave those people behind, but what he did was not selfish. He was saving all of us."

"I just can't imagine how horrified they must be right now," Zoey said. "Hell, they might have been bitten and infected, or maybe that God damned Tank crushed them. They were holed up in that base, they didn't know the Infected like we did. How could they have stood a chance without us?"

"They're trained military personnel," Louis replied. "They have plenty of experience fighting. I know you have good intentions, but we can't save everyone. Don't get me wrong, I hate it, too, but Bill made the best decision for us."

"Will you two can it?" the gruff man moaned. "I'm trying to get some shut-eye over here, and I can't sleep with you two loudmouths arguing."

"I see, so I guess I'm the only one that gives a shit about the people we left behind?" Zoey asked. "Hell, I'm not surprised about you, Francis, but I thought Louis and Bill had more compassion than that."

"The fuck does that mean, 'I'm not surprised about you?'" Francis asked. "You think just 'cause I'm some tough guy that I don't give a shit about people? I've been carrying your sorry asses for miles, blown up hundreds of those God damned zombies, and this is the fucking thanks I get?"

Zoey groaned and tugged at her hair out of frustration. "No, Francis, you're right. I'm sorry. I snapped because I'm pissed about what he did." She cast an ugly glance over at Bill, who was deliberately turned away from her as he smoked his cigarette.

"Whatever, it's fine. I get it. I'd be bullshit if I was one of those people still back there and I saw the train leaving without me. But then I'd pump some lead into a couple of zombies to get my anger out."

"We're all just doing the best we can to survive, Zoey," Louis said. "Sometimes we have to make tough choices. I'm sorry you feel bad about it."

"You know, it's been one hell of a day," Zoey said, rubbing her eyes. "That compound was a fucking nightmare and I think I just need some time to sleep."

"We should all get some rest," Bill exclaimed from the corner of the train car. "The train's moving too fast for any of the Infected to catch up to us, so we're safe as long as we keep moving. Better take advantage and get as much sleep as we can."

"Hell yeah, that's a plan I can get behind," Francis said, laying his shotgun down and resting his head on top of it.

"I hope that safety's on, Francis," Bill said.

"You think I'm an idiot? Of course it's on. Jesus." He then went on muttering to himself as he closed his eyes. Bill and Louis laid down and got as comfortable as they could on the train car's metallic floor. Zoey gave Bill one last glare of indignation before she sighed and laid down herself.

Angry thoughts lingered in her head as she tried to get the sleep she knew she badly needed, but that sleep just wasn't coming. She decided to try to focus on the noise the train was making as a way to distract her from her thoughts, but that proved to be a fruitless effort. Eventually, however, she slipped out of consciousness.

* * *

A homeless man stumbles into their kitchen, eyes pale white and growling. Zoey watches as the man lunges for her mother, biting her neck before anyone can react to the sudden attack. Her father pulls out a pistol and shoots the foul man in the head. Blood splatters against the dining room wall as the man collapses dead on the floor. Her father quickly runs over to her mother, asking her if she is alright. She's not responding, and every second of silence fills Zoey with more dread. Suddenly, a gut-wrenching scream as her mother lurches off the ground and bites her husband, clawing at him in a bloodthirsty rage.

"Get in the closet, Zoey!" her father cries as he tries to fend his wife off of him. Zoey does as she's told, terrified of what has become of her mother and scared for her father's well being. Suddenly, a gunshot pierces the room, and Zoey watches as her mother falls dead to the floor. Her father falls to his knees, a look of anguish on his face as he stares at the dead body of his wife. Zoey tries to console him, but he pushes her away.

"You know what you have to do," he tells her.

"Dad, please don't do this," she says, biting back tears.

"You have to shoot me before I transform. You and I have seen far too many movies not to know this. Take the gun."

Zoey is shaking as she reaches for her father's pistol. She holds it up to his head, shaking so badly she's afraid she won't be able to aim the shot. She lowers the pistol.

"I can't do it, Dad," she says. "I can't kill my own father."

"Let me live, and I won't be your father anymore. I'm dead already. Zoey, please, don't make this harder than it needs to be."

Zoey shudders, but slowly aims the pistol at her father's head again. Her aim is more steady this time.

"I love you, Dad," she says.

"I love you too," he says, his final words as Zoey fires the gun. She collapses on the floor and begins to sob, barely able to comprehend what has just happened to her parents.

"Zoey…" a faceless voice calls from the distance.

"Leave me alone," Zoey says through her sobbing.

"Zoey!" the voice calls, sounding closer. "Zoey!"

"Zoey!" Louis calls as she suddenly wakes up.

"Louis, Jesus," she said. "Why did you wake me up?"

"You were muttering to yourself in your sleep," he answered. "I thought you were having a bad dream."

"Not a dream," Zoey said, her entire body aching as she had been lying on the floor of the train for at least a few hours. "At least, not really."

"A flashback?" Bill asked. Zoey turned to see him and Francis looking at her. Bill's face had a look of concern. Francis's was neutral. "A memory?" Bill asked again.

"Yes, though I really wish I could forget it," she said, before remembering that she was still angry with him.

"You want to tell us what happened?" Louis asked.

"I'd rather not," Zoey said. "Look, I'm sorry I disturbed you all from your sleep. I'll be fine, nothing to worry about. It's in the past, nothing we can do about it now."

"If it's still upsetting you, at least let us try to help you deal with it," Bill said. "I get flashbacks to the war all the time, and if you aren't careful, those memories will haunt you."

"Ugh, will you stop?" Zoey snapped. "Just forget I said anything. It's like you said, we need all the rest we can get."

Bill looked like he was about to object again, but Francis grabbed his arm and pulled him away.

"Leave it alone, old man," he said. "She can take care of herself. She don't need Gramps trying to get her to talk about her feelings."

Bill glared at Francis, but then sighed dejectedly. "Guess you're right. I just hope we can all rest easy from here on out, because it won't be so easy when this train hits its last stop."

"And where exactly does this train stop?" Francis asked. "What's your plan once we hit the end of the line?"

"We're going to an island," Bill replied. "Florida Keys. The Infected can't swim, so if we reach an island we can hold out there until this outbreak stops spreading."

"Did you forget we're carriers?" Zoey asked Bill. "What if there are people still alive on those islands? Are we just gonna wait for them to turn and then kill them?"

"Zoey, I don't know, and I'm getting tired of you questioning my judgment."

"Hey, hey," Louis said. "Knock it off. We gotta stay positive about the situation. We can deal in hypotheticals all we want, but we won't know for sure what's gonna happen until we make it out to one of those islands."

"Fine," Zoey said. "I'm going back to bed, and I don't want anyone trying to wake me up before I'm ready or before the train stops."

"You better knock off the muttering then," Francis warned her. "It's creepy."

"What was I saying?" Zoey asked.

"Couldn't hear very well, something about your parents," Francis said. "No use crying over them, they're probably long dead by now."

"Shut the fuck up!" Zoey yelled. "Don't talk about my parents like that!"

"Whoa, whoa, easy," Francis said, holding up his hands as a sign of surrender. "Didn't know it was a touchy subject, okay?"

Zoey was about to retort, but she took a deep breath to calm herself. "It's fine," she said. "Nothing we can do about it now."

"Let's just try to get some rest," Bill said. "We'll figure out what we have to do when the train stops."

"Sounds good to me!" Louis said, lying down and shutting his eyes.

"Yeah, what Little Miss Sunshine said," Francis said with a smirk, shutting his eyes as well.

"Sleep tight, kid," Bill said to Zoey as he shut his eyes as well. Zoey gave him one last glare before she shut her eyes, and she found it a bit easier to fall asleep this time

* * *

In a blue stock car cruising down an empty highway were four survivors. The driver, a short, young man wearing a cap, yellow shirt, and blue jeans, was grinning ear to ear. To his right sat an overweight African American man wearing a purple shirt and khakis. In the back sat a white man in a clean white suit with slicked back hair, and next to him was an African American woman with a pink shirt that read "Depeche Mode" and blue jeans.

"Boy," the large man in the passenger seat said to the driver, "you sure are getting a kick out of driving Jimmy Gibbs' car, ain't you, Ellis?"

"Damn straight, Coach," Ellis replied. "Only thing that would make this better is if the radio worked."

"Why," the man in the suit asked, "so we can listen to your hick music about some kid fucking his cousin?"

The woman beside the man in the suit slapped him in the arm. "Knock it off, Nick. How would you feel if I insulted Aerosmith?"

"Wouldn't bother me in the slightest," Nick replied with a smirk. "I don't listen to shitty rock bands."

"What do you listen to?" the woman asked.

"Not much," Nick said. "Most music you hear on the radio sounds like shit, so I just figured why bother?"

"Well, I would love me some Toby Keith or Kenny Chesney right about now," Ellis said. "That'd set the mood for this zombie apocalypse road trip, that's for sure."

"Speaking of zombies," Nick said, "have we seen any of those fuckers since we got out of that hellhole of a mall?"

"I'd say it's been pretty quiet," Coach said. "Rochelle, you keeping an eye out the left side of the car?"

"Yeah, I am," she said, "and if you ask me, quiet isn't a good thing. Anyway, it seems like the zombies have been gathering in places where they can find food."

"You mean they don't eat the brains of their victims?" Nick asked.

"Not from what I've been noticing," Rochelle replied. "We have to remember that these aren't just your ordinary horror-flick kind of zombies. These are real people who have been stricken with the worst disease this country's ever seen. Hey, Ellis, I know we can't get any music on the radio, but can you maybe tune into an emergency broadcast?"

"Wait, we're gonna listen to the guys at CEDA?" Nick asked with a laugh. "Those dumbasses have no idea what they're talking about. Typical government bureaucrats who are just as clueless as everybody else but have to look tough to keep in power."

"CEDA may not know anything about how to handle these zombies," Rochelle said, "but they sure as hell know something about where the infection's been spreading. Maybe we can figure out where the safe zones are and head to the nearest one."

"You do realize CEDA was started under Bush, right?" Nick asked. "That alone tells you all you need to know about how competent they are."

"Will you two be quiet?" Coach asked. "I think I hear something."

"Hear what?" Ellis asked.

"Listen," Coach said. It was difficult to hear over the sound of the car driving on the highway, but pretty soon they could make out grumbling noises on either side of the highway.

"Oh shit, those fuckers are hiding out in the trees," Nick said. "The hell are we supposed to do?"

"We keep driving," Coach said. "We stay still, and they'll pounce before we can say 'boo.' Ellis, how we doing on gas?"

"About half a tank left," Ellis said, "but I haven't seen a city in miles. What the hell are we supposed to do when this thing runs out of gas?"

"Did anyone think to take some of the spare cans we saw at the mall with us so we could refuel?" Nick asked with a bite of sarcasm in his voice.

"Too dangerous to stop and fill up," Coach said, "and we used up all the adrenaline we found at the mall to fill the tank to begin with."

"Hey, guys, you might want to take a look at this," Ellis said. They had just made a turn in the road, and a city loomed ahead. The road they were on looked like it would take them directly through it.

"Where the hell are we?" Rochelle asked. "Are there any signs?"

"I've been looking, but most of the signs got tore up, so I haven't been able to figure out where we've been going," Ellis replied.

"I'm sure we'll figure it out when we get there. Just keep driving," Nick said. He looked out the window of the car again to a clearing, and then suddenly he jumped in surprise.

"Fuck!" he yelled. "Tank to our right, and he's barreling straight for the car!"

"The hell?" Coach asked, looking out the window. Indeed, the massive beast was barreling across the clearing directly for the road. A horrible bellow sounded, and the ground started to shake as he got closer.

"Guns out!" Coach yelled. "Ellis, whatever you do, don't take your foot off of that damn gas pedal! Everyone loaded?"

"Yep," Rochelle said, aiming her M16 out the window.

"I'm good," Nick added, pulling out a sniper rifle he had scavenged from the mall.

"Okay," Coach said. "I've got a shotgun, so I can't do shit until that thing gets close. Start shooting!"

"No need to tell me twice!" Nick yelled. He took steady aim at the Tank and started firing the sniper rifle while Rochelle started peppering it from a distance with M16 rounds. It was difficult to get good aim in the shaky car and with so little room in the back seat, but they were able to hit the Tank with some of their shots. No matter what they hit it with, it wouldn't slow down.

"It's about to cross those train tracks," Nick yelled. "It's headed right for us!"

"Look!" Coach yelled. "Train's coming!"

"What the…?" Nick asked, taking a brief glance over. Indeed, there was a large train flying across the track heading directly for the Tank. Just as it started to cross the tracks, the train hit it at full speed, sending it through the air. It hit the ground and shook it so hard that Ellis almost lost control of the car.

"Is it dead?" Ellis asked.

Coach looked out the window to see that it was not moving. "Sure as hell looks dead to me. That fucker ain't getting up."

"Well shit, we wasted a good amount of ammo trying to take it down ourselves," Nick complained.

"Doesn't matter, we should be able to find some in town," Coach said. "Let's just be glad that train showed up when it did."

"Hold up," Rochelle said, "if there was a train riding along those tracks, that means there must be someone on board driving it. You think they're gonna stop in town to get some supplies?"

"What are you saying, Rochelle, that we should try to find out who was on that train?" Nick asked.

"I highly doubt some zombie has the intelligence needed to make a train run, so there's gotta be survivors on that train. We need to meet up with them. Strength in numbers, right? Besides, they might know more about what the hell's going on around here."

"Okay, let's just hope they stop in town then," Coach said.

* * *

Bill, Francis, Zoey, and Louis were asleep on the train when suddenly they felt a huge impact. Bill was the first to be shaken awake, and he looked out the window immediately to find out what had happened.

"For Christ's sake, we just hit a Tank!" he yelled. "Everyone get to the window pronto!"

Zoey, Francis, and Louis moved over to join Bill at the window. They got a glimpse of the massive zombie lying on the ground, appearing unresponsive.

"The fuck was a Tank doing on the tracks?" Francis asked.

"I don't know, but we must be getting close to a town if we're starting to see Tanks. The Infected have been staying relatively close to areas with lots of supplies. We should see where the train takes us and stop in town to see if we can scavenge the area."

"And risk running into another Tank?" Zoey asked. "I think we should keep moving in the train, where we're safe, until the train can't move anymore."

"Well, turns out we're both getting our way," Bill said. "I can see the end of the tracks from here."

"What?" Zoey asked. She looked out the window and indeed saw that they were heading towards the end of the line.

"I'm pulling the brakes," Bill said. He got up and went to the front of the train, hitting the brakes. The train whined as it gradually slowed down as they entered town. It finally stopped just at the end of the track.

"Let's get the hell out of here and see what we have to deal with," Bill said before opening the door of the train. The four survivors got out and held their guns out, looking every which way for Infected that may have heard the train come in.

"Oh shit, zombies dead ahead!" Francis called. The other three turned to see a hoard barreling towards them. The four survivors began firing off their weapons, skillfully dispatching the Infected in a way that could only have come with practice. But the Infected just kept on coming.

"Shit!" Louis yelled as he felt a cold, clammy hand grab him from behind. "They're behind us too!"

"Zoey and Francis, keep on these guys in front! I'll cover Louis," Bill said. He turned and fired off his M16 at the swarm that was coming from behind them. Finally, the hoard seemed to be diminishing in numbers. It didn't take too much longer before they completely disappeared.

"Looks like we're clear," Bill said. "Ammo check!"

"Shotgun ammo's a little low," Francis said, "but worth it to pump those assholes full of buckshot."

"I'm doing okay on ammo," Louis said.

"Same here," Zoey said. "We've got your back in case you run out, Francis."

"I'm okay as well," Bill said, "but I'm not liking the quiet. Keep an ear out for Specials."

"Hold up," Louis said, and the four survivors fell silent. "Footsteps."

The survivors listened as they heard the sound of footsteps steadily approaching.

"Specials?" Zoey whispered.

"I don't think so," Bill responded hesitantly. "They'd be growling something fierce if they were."

"I see shadows!" Louis said in a frantic whisper. The other three turned to an alley where they saw human-like shadows coming across.

"We'll take 'em by surprise," Bill whispered. "Move!"

The four survivors hustled over to the beginning of the alley and pointed their guns directly at whoever was coming. They were shocked at what they saw.

* * *

"You hear that?" Nick said as they entered town. "Gunshots."

"Wonder if they're the same people that were on that train," Rochelle said. "Are we gonna say hi?"

"Yep, I say we give 'em a warm welcome to our neck of the woods," Coach said. "They're probably just as scared as we are."

"Yeah, but we don't know what else that gunfire attracted," Nick said. "Probably best to just leave them to fend for themselves. We can't fit anyone else in this damned car, so we'd have to abandon it if we were gonna join up with anyone else."

"Fuck the car," Ellis said. "I wanna see if anyone else made it out alive. Sure, I love driving this thing, but it ain't more important than flesh and blood. Not that you three aren't enough company, mind you."

"I think Coach and Ellis are right," Rochelle said. "Let's leave the car somewhere safe and see if we can find them."

"Well, since I appear to be outnumbered, I guess I have no choice," Nick said. "Let's leave the car in this alley. Less of a chance of zombies tearing it to shreds if it's hidden."

Ellis parked the car in the alley, and the four of them exited the vehicle, toting their guns warily.

"I don't see any more zombies," Nick said. "I think that gunfire took away all the attention."

"We'd still better keep our voices low," Coach said. "Don't want any stragglers jumping us in this alleyway."

They continued down the alley until it came out on the other side. Suddenly they were blinded by flashlights.

"For Christ's sake! You trying to blind us?" Nick yelled.

"Oh my God," Louis said. "They're not Infected!"

"What the fuck?" Francis asked. They shut their lights off and realized they were looking at four other survivors. "Holy shit, where the hell did you come from?"

"We just escaped from a mall east of here," Rochelle said. "You?"

"Rode in on that train over there," Francis said, pointing at the large train they came in on.

"Hold up," Ellis said. "That looks like the train that hit that Tank!"

"We did hit a Tank!" Zoey said. "You saw that?"

"That Tank was coming straight for us when your train knocked it about a hundred feet in the air," Ellis said. "Heh, I guess we have you to thank for saving our lives." He started to blush, and he suddenly found it very difficult to look Zoey in the eye.

"Well, you're welcome," Zoey said with a chuckle. "Anytime."

"I think some introductions are in order," Coach said. "I'm Coach, and this is Nick, Rochelle, and Ellis."

"Pleasure to meet you, Coach. I'm Bill, and with me are Francis, Louis, and Zoey."

The eight survivors started to exchange handshakes. Coach and Ellis gave the four newcomers firm and enthusiastic handshakes. Nick's were more wary, and after he shook Francis's hand, he had a faint look of disgust on his face.

"What?" Francis asked. "Something wrong with my hand?"

"When's the last time you showered?" Nick asked. "Swear to Christ your hands are slimier than that Boomer puke shit."

"Nick, play nice," Rochelle said, shaking Francis's hand. "There's nothing wrong with his hand. Quit acting like a baby."

"Yeah, or I'll rub my hands all over that ugly-ass suit of yours," Francis said.

"Hey! This suit probably cost more than your entire wardrobe before the infection hit, judging how you dress."

"For Christ sake," Bill said. "Will you apes keep your voices down? I think I hear a Smoker."

The air was tense as the eight survivors listened for the hacking noise the Smokers typically made. Pretty soon they could hear the coughing, and it sounded like it was coming closer.

"Check the rooftops," Bill whispered. They all shined their lights in eight different directions. Suddenly there was a horrible screech and the Smoker's long tongue wrapped itself around Nick.

"Dammit!" Francis said, pumping a well aimed shotgun blast at the Smoker, who was not on the rooftops but in one of the buildings, having shot his tongue from out a window. The blast made the Smoker erupt, and the typical gray haze it left behind when it exploded told everyone that the coast was clear.

"Thanks," Nick said begrudgingly, unwrapping the Smoker's tongue from his body.

"Next time, I might let you choke," Francis said. "Don't get used to me watching your back."

"We need to find a safehouse where we can camp out for the night," Bill said. "No telling what kind of Specials we'll be dealing with next. You folks know this town?"

"Nope, we're about as lost as you folks are," Coach said. "Lead the way, Bill."

"Okay, follow me close and keep your guns at the ready," Bill said. "This could be a long night."

Bill led the way forward, staying well ahead of the pack to keep an ear out for Infected. Zoey hustled over to catch up to him.

"So what's gonna happen if these new guys can't keep up?" she asked bitterly. "You gonna leave them behind, too?"

"Kid, I don't know what the hell's gonna happen," Bill said. "All I know is I won't sacrifice our safety saving their necks if they can't hack it."

"Unbelievable," she said. "That's really low."

"They'll have plenty of chance to prove themselves while we look for a safehouse," Bill said, "so hopefully they can keep up. Then you might be able to get more acquainted with that kid Ellis."

Zoey chortled. "Excuse me?"

"He certainly seems to like you," Bill said. "Just saying."

"Whatever," Zoey said. "I should be talking to Louis more, anyway. He at least knows how to be optimistic."

"By all means," Bill said. "I know I'm a bit more of a realist, but whatever makes you feel better."

Zoey shook her head as she fell back towards the rest of the pack. Swear to God, Bill, we better not leave these people to die, too.


	2. Chapter 2

Cautious footsteps could be heard as the eight survivors made their way through the town. Bill led the way, his M16 cocked and ready to fire at a moment's notice. The other survivors stayed close behind, with Coach and Francis covering the rear.

"So, what's your plan, old man?" Nick asked Bill. "Find a safehouse, then what the hell do we do?"

"Let's just focus on finding that safehouse first," Bill said, "and I'll fill you in on our plan once we get there. It's too dangerous to talk outside where zombies can hear us."

"Really now?" Nick asked. "We did an awful lot of talking back in that alleyway and we were fine."

"A Smoker almost got Francis, so don't be too sure of that, son."

"Quiet!" Rochelle whispered harshly. The survivors stopped where they stood, ears open for the sound of Infected. Suddenly, they heard a slow, ominous growling.

"Hunter!" Ellis whispered. "Damn, those fuckers like to be sneaky."

"Keep an eye on the rooftops," Bill said, "and let's keep moving."

The survivors continued down the street they were on slowly so as to not make any more noise. It didn't matter, because the Hunter's growling was beginning to get closer.

"Sounds like it's right behind us," Ellis said shakily.

"Tighten up," Bill said. "Make a circle and keep close."

The survivors arranged themselves in a circle so that the eight of them could cover eight different directions. Francis took a cautious look up at a window above and saw something moving. He fired his shotgun, but no sound of pain came from out of it.

"Francis!" Bill said. "What the hell were you shooting at?"

"I saw movement up in that window!" he barked back.

Bill looked up and saw the window Francis had aimed at. "Those are curtains, Francis. Next time don't be so quick on that trigger."

Suddenly they heard a blood-curdling scream.

"He sees us!" Louis said, fear present in his voice.

"But we don't see him," Coach said ominously.

Zoey looked over across the other side of the street. On the first floor of the building there she saw a pair of glowing red eyes.

"He's there!" she yelled, aiming her flashlight and firing off her pistols. Coach quickly aimed his shotgun in that direction and fired as well. The Hunter yelped in pain and jumped away, hidden in the shadows again. The survivors could hear him breathing laboriously as he had taken fire.

"Good eye, Zoey," Bill said. "You and Coach got a shot off at him, did some damage."

"But we didn't kill him," Coach said.

"It's okay," Louis said, much more cheerful than he had been before. "We'll be able to hear him coming from a mile away now."

Suddenly they heard a whooshing noise, and Louis was knocked down to the ground by the prowling zombie.

"Get this thing off me!" he yelled, trying to fend off the Hunter's brutally sharp claws. Bill took aim and fired off a few bursts from his M16 write in the Hunter's chest. The Hunter got knocked backwards and keeled over dead.

"You okay, Louis?" Zoey asked.

"I'm fine," he said as Coach helped him get to his feet. "I'm not hurt. Bill was so quick to shoot him he didn't get a scratch on me."

"That sneaky son of a bitch came out of nowhere," Nick said. "They usually scream worse than my ex-wife before they attack. You think these zombies are getting smarter?"

"I don't want to know the answer to that question," Rochelle said.

"Let's keep moving," Bill said. "Our gunfire probably attracted all kinds of attention, we have to keep ahead of them."

They continued to search through the streets in search of a safehouse. Along the way they came across a bar, the windows missing and the door hanging off of its hinges.

"You know what?" Nick said. "This isn't the seediest bar I've ever been to."

"We should check for supplies," Coach suggested. "Might be something useful in there."

"Yeah, and there might be a Tank waiting to serve us a cold one," Francis remarked.

"There may be a safehouse inside the basement," Rochelle said. "Let's check it out."

"Bill, what do you think?" Louis asked.

"Well, it's pretty quiet. If we go into that bar the zombies can only attack from so many sides. I say we see what we can find."

"Nice," Nick said. "Maybe they left behind some booze. Could use a drink with all this apocalypse shit that's been happening."

They entered the bar slowly and started to look around. Nick's first stop was behind the bar. He searched the cabinets beneath, but there was no alcohol to be found.

"Ah, shit," he said. "No booze."

"It's a bad idea anyway," Bill said. "We have to keep our heads if we're gonna get out of this alive."

"Hey I found some first aid!" Louis said. The others went over to the cabinet he was standing at. There were two first aid kits and three bottles of pain pills.

"Five of them, eight of us," Nick said. "Who's feeling lucky?"

"Doesn't matter," Francis said. "Just take the shit and go."

Coach and Zoey took the first aid kits, while Rochelle, Louis, and Bill took the pain pills.

"Anything else here?" Zoey asked, looking around. Suddenly they heard creepy laughter. "Uh...did I say something funny?" she asked.

"I wish," Rochelle said. "That's a Jockey."

"A Jockey?" Francis asked. "The hell are those?"

"You've never seen a Jockey?" Rochelle asked. "Oh, that's right. My news station was reporting on this. You folks came from the North, right?"

"Yeah, we were out in Pennsylvania when the outbreak started," Zoey replied.

"Well the southern US got hit with a bit more of the mutations than the North did," Rochelle explained. "There's a few types of Specials down here that you folks didn't get."

"Let's get to the point, sweetheart," Francis said. "What the hell do these things do?"

"They jump on your head and take you for a joyride," Ellis said. "I got hit by one at the mall and he almost walked me off the third story catwalk."

"I think it's getting closer," Bill said, holding up his hand for everyone to hush. There was a door at the end of the room, and it sounded like the laughter was coming from in there. This was confirmed when they started to hear scratching at the door, the laughter punctuating the noises.

"Better start firing!" Coach yelled.

"I got this one," Nick said, but before he could take aim, the door flew off its hinges and pinned him to the ground. Before anyone could react, the Jockey leaped onto the closest survivor he could find.

"Fucking hell, get this thing off me!" Francis yelled. The Jockey was riding him around the room and knocked him into the pool table in the center of the bar. "Bill, Louis, someone shoot this thing!"

As Francis wrestled with it, Bill took careful aim with his M16 and peppered the Jockey with a few rounds. This was enough to get the Jockey to fall off of Francis, but it was still walking around through the room. Francis aimed his shotgun right at the Jockey's face and fired. The Jockey fell to the ground and didn't get up.

With the coast clear, Francis and Coach lifted the door off of Nick and helped him upright.

"Shit, I hate those things," he muttered.

"Reloading," Bill said as he put a fresh clip into his M16.

"Same," Francis said, but he fished through his ammunition. "Uh-oh."

"What's wrong?" Rochelle asked.

"I've got like three shotgun shells left," Francis said. "Got a little carried away I guess."

"Hopefully there will be ammo at the safehouse," Zoey said. "Speaking of which, are we gonna check the basement?"

"It's this way, where the Jockey came from," Louis said.

"There might be other zombies where that one came from, stay close," Bill said. He led the way through the dark hallway and found a door frame with some stairs leading underground. It was pitch black down there and there was also a reeking odor.

"God, that stinks more than this biker does," Nick complained.

"I'd like to see you try to stay clean when there's no working water," Francis barked back.

"Quiet!" Bill said. "We need to be careful. No more of this squabbling, or we're all gonna pay for it."

Bill walked gingerly down the stairs, ignoring the rank smell of the basement. Once everyone else had followed him down, they spread out to scour the room for supplies.

"Shit, there's nothing down here," Francis said with a groan. "Nothing but empty cans of food."

"Looks like someone tried to hold out down here during the outbreak," Rochelle deduced. "That doesn't explain the smell though."

"Oh my God!" Zoey said, gagging a bit and backing away from the corner of the room she had been looking at.

"What's wrong, Zoey?" Coach asked.

"Whatever you do, don't look in that corner," she said.

"Well, cupcake, you couldn't have picked a worse set of words if you didn't want us to look," Nick said. He shined his light over to the corner. "Holy shit!" he yelled.

In the corner were the rotting corpses of what appeared to be an adult and two children, most likely a family. Their facial features were barely recognizable, but the gashes in their corpses made it all too clear what had happened.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Zoey muttered, looking away from the corner of the room and gagging.

"Well, that accounts for the smell, at least," Bill said. "We're lucky it isn't anything worse."

"We should head back upstairs and get the hell out of this building," Louis said. "There's nothing else here we can use."

"Agreed, everyone back up the stairs," Bill ordered. They made their way up the creaky steps, but when they got to the top of the stairs they heard shuffling noises.

"What the hell is that?" Rochelle asked.

"Looks like a few zombies came in to take a load off," Nick muttered as he came up and peered into the bar.

"We should sneak out the back so we don't attract attention," Bill said.

"Aw, man, you don't want a little target practice?" Nick asked. "My trigger finger's itching."

"That sure as hell doesn't surprise me," Francis muttered.

"I could start with you, meat head," Nick spat back.

"Quiet!" Rochelle said. "They can hear us!"

"Come on!" Bill whispered as they slowly made their way through the hallway and out the back door.

"Oh no," Ellis said. As they stepped outside, they saw hoards of zombies walking around the streets.

"Where the hell did all these zombies come from?" Zoey asked.

"They probably showed up when we had to kill that Jockey," Bill said. "Shoot only what's necessary, we don't want to attract their attention."

The eight survivors slowly made their way down the street, keeping their eyes trained for Specials that might be waiting on the rooftops. One of the zombies turned as they approached and ran towards Nick, who pulled out his pistol and shot it in the head. It staggered backwards and hit a car, which promptly set off the car alarm.

"Dammit, Nick!" Rochelle yelled as all the zombies turned to face them. "The hell did you do that for?"

"How was I supposed to know that car had an alarm?" he asked.

The eight survivors started firing at the zombies. Francis decided to conserve his shotgun and instead pulled out his Magnum in order to take out the approaching zombies. They took out the horde one by one before any of them could land an attack, but in the confusion they couldn't hear a dangerous threat waiting in the wings.

Suddenly they heard what sounded like a wounded cow.

"Oh shit, not one of these," Nick said.

"One of what?" Louis asked, but suddenly he was grabbed by a zombie that had come barreling towards him at full speed.

"Get this thing off me!" Louis cried as the zombie slammed him into the ground. Nick, Rochelle, Ellis, and Coach all fired at the zombie until it keeled over, then Coach helped Louis off the ground.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I feel a little dizzy," Louis said, "but I think it'll pass."

"The hell is that thing?" Francis asked.

"Charger," Ellis explained. "You can usually hear them a mile away, but I guess that horde of zombies kept us distracted."

"Well let's hope we don't run into him again," Louis said. "My head hurts."

"We'll get you patched up once it's safe," Bill said. "We need to keep moving before more zombies show up."

The survivors made their way down the streets, and it was oddly quiet, with no zombies in site.

"This is either really good or really bad," Nick said.

They came upon a setup of plastic chairs all facing a gazebo. From a speaker setup they could hear a particularly sappy sounding rendition of "Here Comes the Bride," but the most important thing was the woman in front of the gazebo hunched over and crying.

"Oh this is bringing up some bad memories," Nick muttered.

"We need to give that Witch a wide berth," Bill said. "Shut your lights off so we can go around her."

"Looks like she got stood up at the altar," Ellis said. "No wonder she turned into one of those things."

"I bet she was worse before she got infected," Nick said. "By the way, are there any hot zombie bridesmaids nearby? I bet Ellis would love hooking up with one."

"Shut up, Nick," Ellis muttered, but Zoey actually chuckled a bit. "Wait, you think that's funny?" Ellis asked her.

"Oh, sorry, Ellis," Zoey said, clearing her throat and blushing a bit, "that's not the reason I was laughing."

"So what was the reason?" Ellis asked.

"Well, um...never mind," she muttered lamely.

"Keep it down, you two," Bill said. "I think she's starting to get angry."

The crying had indeed been replaced by an ominous growling noise as the Witch looked around to hear what was making noise around her. The survivors carefully made to sneak around her so they could keep moving unscathed. Ellis made his way over to the speaker where the music was playing from in an attempt to put something between him and the Witch. He put his hand on it as he made to walk behind it, but accidentally changed the song. Suddenly, a loud rendition of a Midnight Riders song began to play. The Witch started to rise, getting steadily more angry.

"Change it back!" Francis barked, but it was too late. The Witch screamed and made a beeline for Ellis.

"Shit!" he yelled, shooting at the Witch as he tried to dodge her. He circled around to the gazebo, trying to find something to put in between himself and the Witch. The other seven survivors fired at her as well, and she began to slow as she got wounded. Suddenly Coach aimed a killing blow right to her head, and she keeled over and died.

"Good riddance," he said, "now someone shut off that music! As much as I love the Midnight Riders, that's gonna attract all kinds of zombies!"

"I can't figure this thing out!" Ellis yelled as he made his way back over to the stereo.

"I got it!" Louis said. He went over to the cable that was connecting the stereo to an electricity source and unplugged it, and suddenly there was a dead silence.

"You think we're safe?" Zoey asked, pistols raised nervously.

The survivors suddenly heard a guttural roar and saw a car get flipped up into the air.

"Watch out!" Zoey cried, pulling Ellis back just as the flipped car landed where he was standing.

"Holy shit," Ellis said. "Thanks, Zoey."

"Don't mention it," she said.

"There's only one zombie I know that can overturn a car like that," Coach said.

"And it's coming up fast!" Nick yelled. The zombie in question was a Tank, and the massive sunburned beast of a zombie came barreling for them.

"Is this the groom that stood up the Witch?" Nick asked.

"Cut with the jokes and kill that son of a bitch!" Bill yelled.

The survivors peppered the Tank with bullets as he approached. Francis used up the last of his shotgun rounds to do some damage before switching over to the Magnum pistol for good. The Tank came barreling towards them, and the survivors had to separate before he hit them with his massive arm. His attack hit the gazebo instead, smashing it to pieces and sending its debris flying across the street.

"We need to find some cover!" Zoey yelled.

"Fall back!" Bill hollered as the Tank was lifting up a giant rock. He threw the rock at the closest survivor, which was Ellis. Ellis ducked and the rock smashed in a wall just behind him, having barely missed him.

"That guy has some scary aim!" he yelled.

"It's gotta be almost dead by now!" Louis yelled. "We've been hitting it for a while."

The Tank barreled towards Louis and took a swing, knocking him back into the bushes.

"Louis!" Bill yelled. He redoubled his effort on the Tank, and the other survivors did as well, until the Tank keeled over and fell dead.

Bill, Francis, and Zoey immediately went through the bushes to look for their friend. They saw Louis lying on the ground, unable to walk.

"Can you help me up?" he asked. "I got the wind knocked out of me."

"You could definitely use some first aid," Bill said, "and the coast is pretty clear, so let's patch you up."

Zoey pulled out her first aid kit and handed it to Bill. He helped Louis dress his wounds while the other survivors looked around for other impending threats.

"These zombies are everywhere, man," Ellis said ominously. "How the hell are we gonna get out of here?"

"We have to keep searching for that safehouse," Bill said. "That's our only hope until the sun comes up, then we'll have daylight on our side."

"How did this town get so badly overrun?" Rochelle asked.

"Beats the hell out of me," Bill said. "How did any of this start to happen? I guess we'll never know."

"I still think it's a conspiracy," Nick said, "but I know none of you want to listen to my bullshit, so I'll spare you the theories. You're welcome."

"Nobody was thanking you," Coach said with a chuckle. Nick glared at him.

"Hey guys, over here!" Ellis said. "I think I see a safehouse!"

"Holy shit, he's right, folks!" Coach said. "Those steel doors are unmistakable. Thank you, lord, we're almost safe."

Suddenly a howling noise came from what appeared to be every direction.

"Why does there have to be a horde now?" Zoey asked. "Damn it, we're so close!"

Bill had finished dressing Louis's wounds, so now they were back on their feet. "We'll have to make a sprint for it. Let's go!"

They ran as fast as they could towards the safehouse, but the horde was closing in on them fast.

"We're running low on ammo after that Tank," Bill said, "so conserve as much as you can until we get to that safehouse."

"That's easier said than done!" Rochelle yelled. She and Bill aimed their M16's at a few zombies getting close and took them down efficiently.

"Shit, I'm out of ammo guys!" Ellis yelled.

Rochelle pulled the trigger on her M16, but it clicked without firing off a single round. "I'm out, too!"

"Use one of my pistols," Zoey said, offering one to Rochelle.

"Thanks," she said, using the pistol to take the head off one quickly approaching zombie.

Unbeknownst to the survivors, there was a zombie lurking on the rooftops waiting to find the opportune time to strike. He launched forth a long, nasty tongue that wrapped itself around Bill.

"Smoker's got me!" he yelled as it started to drag him off.

"I got this fucker," Nick said, aiming at the tall zombie where the smoke was emanating from and firing his hunting rifle right at the Smoker's head. It exploded, and the tongue fell limp as Bill hit the ground.

"You okay, old man?" Nick asked.

"I'm fine, son," Bill said as he untangled himself from the gross tongue. He suddenly fired his M16 at a zombie that had been approaching Nick from behind.

"Shit, guess we're even now," Nick said.

"That was the last of my ammo," Bill said. "Can't help you now, so be careful."

"We're almost there, guys!" Louis said. The zombie horde was beginning to thin and the safehouse seemed a lot closer now.

"Go, go, go," Zoey said, mostly to herself as they got closer to the door.

"Everyone inside!" Bill yelled, holding the door open as the other survivors crowded into the safehouse. The zombies were starting to get closer and closer to the door. "Hurry up!" Bill yelled. Once the last survivor made it inside, Bill hustled in and shut the door. Unfortunately, another zombie had followed him in, but Rochelle took him out with a well-aimed shot from the pistol Zoey had given her. The eight survivors gave themselves a chance to catch their breath.

"Everyone alright?" Zoey asked. Everybody said that they were okay.

"That was one hell of a run we just had," Ellis said. "Jockeys, Chargers, shotgun wedding."

"Ha ha," Nick said sarcastically, "shotgun wedding. Real clever."

Rochelle sighed. "Nick, are you ever not an asshole?"

"Rarely," Nick responded with a smirk.

"How are the supplies?" Louis asked Bill, who had been rummaging through the tables.

"Well there's a map showing us the best route out of town, so that's a start," Bill said. "There's plenty of ammunition, so we're all set to reload our guns. Everyone take as much as you can."

The eight survivors rummaged through the ammunition and reloaded their guns to capacity, storing the extra ammunition wherever they could.

"Got a couple more health packs as well," Bill said. "Who doesn't have a healing item?"

Zoey, Francis, Nick, and Ellis raised their hands, and Bill tossed them all first aid kits.

"Holy shit, look at these," he said. "What are in these needles?"

"Oh that's gonna be helpful," Coach said. "That's adrenaline. Gives you a burst of energy so you can move faster, and it helps you get around zombies, too."

"Well there's enough for all of us to have one, so everyone grab a shot," Bill said. The survivors did so, storing the adrenaline in a safe place where they wouldn't lose it.

"Is there any food?" Louis asked.

"Yes, there's a few cans of beans, some crackers, and a couple boxes of cookies, for some reason," Bill said. "That's barely anything, but it'll be enough to get by for one night."

"Just one night?" Ellis asked.

"We can't afford to stay in one place too long," Bill said. "I'm not taking any more chances sticking around this hellhole longer than what's necessary, so I say we head out in the morning."

"Old man's got a point," Coach said. "There's zombies crawling all over tarnation here. We need to stock up on some real food and get the hell out of town."

"Exactly," Bill said. "So let's divvy up this food and have ourselves some dinner."

The dry humor failed to make anyone smile, they were all so tired from the trek to the safehouse. Everyone was thankful, though, that there was at least a little bit of something to eat. It was good to find some temporary respite that safehouses had been providing for them time and time again, and they were just as grateful for one this time around as they had been for all the others in the past.


	3. Chapter 3

"You know, for a bunker in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, this ain't too shabby," Louis said. "Plenty of room for the eight of us to move around."

"Until a Tank breaks down the door, then we're all screwed," Nick said. "I don't trust these damn safehouses to keep the zombies out, do you?"

"Quiet, you two," Bill said. "We need to start discussing options moving forward. The four of us had a plan for when we got to this city, but we didn't expect company."

"And what was your bright idea, old man?" Nick asked. "Were you gonna find a wooden stake to stab these things through the heart, or did you think you'd find silver bullets in one of these ammo piles?"

"Uh, Nick?" Ellis suggested. "I think that's vampires and werewolves you're thinking about, not zombies."

"For Christ's sake, that's the _joke_ , Ellis," Nick retaliated.

"Would you babies quit whining?" Francis hollered. "Listen to the guy with the real wartime experience."

"Didn't think I'd ever say this, but thank you, Francis," Bill said. He lit up a cigarette and started puffing at it before continuing. "Now, the four of us were going to commandeer a sailboat and head out for the Florida Keys. Figured the outbreak hadn't spread to any of the islands yet, so we'd stand a good shot at survival out there."

"Yeah, there's just one little problem with that," Zoey said bitterly. "The four of us are carriers. So even if there is still some semblance of civilization left on those islands, we'll be bringing the Green Flu out there to wipe out whoever's left."

"Sounds like a pretty shitty plan," Nick remarked.

"You got a better idea, jackass?" Bill asked.

"Allow me, Nick," Coach said, before Nick had a chance to shoot some smart quip back at Bill. "We were gonna head out to New Orleans. There's a military base out there, should still be safe from the zombies, and from there we'll be safe to figure out our next move."

"Oh, that's good for a laugh!" Francis said. "'Trust the military. They'll solve everything.' You know what? We did trust the military, and we got completely screwed over because of them, so sorry if I ain't buying your idea."

"Hold up a second," Rochelle said. "What happened to you folks?"

"We came out of Pennsylvania," Bill said. "Took us two damn weeks to get our asses saved by the military. When we got there, we were told we were 'carriers' and we would have been held captive there, isolated from the rest of the world, until they could figure out what to do with us. Well I wasn't ready to give in and be someone else's POW, so we had to get the hell out of there. There was a train on the base, and we were able to commandeer it and ride it all the way down here."

"What Bill neglects to mention is that we left some good people back in that base to die," Zoey said. Bill sighed, but didn't try to keep her from objecting. "We had two military officers and a doctor on our side, and we could have waited up for them before taking off on the train, but _he_ decided to leave without them."

"What the hell, you couldn't wait like an extra five seconds?" Nick asked. "Trained soldiers and a doctor, those sound like the kind of people who might actually be worth a damn at a time like this."

"The base was being overrun by the Infected," Bill said. "If we stayed there any longer we were likely going to be killed. I did what I had to do to keep us alive."

"Whatever, I'm sick of arguing about it," Zoey said. "So we ended up down here, just the four of us, and now we have this bright idea to infect an entire island and say to hell with the rest of society."

"Well it sounds like both of our plans suck ass," Nick replied. "Anyone got any better ideas?"

"I don't know," Francis quipped, "do _you_ have any ideas, wise-ass, or are you just gonna bitch and moan the entire time we're here?"

"You think I'm scared of you, tough guy?" Nick asked. He and Francis stood up and glared at each other, but Coach stood between them and held them apart.

"I think you two might be forgetting that we're on the same side here," he said. "Those zombies out there, the ones trying to tear our flesh off, _they're_ the enemies. Now why don't you just sit down, put the measuring sticks away, and help us figure out how the hell we're gonna survive this shit?"

Nick and Francis gave each other one last dirty look, but both regrettably followed Coach's advice.

"Well I for one like the idea of heading out west," Louis said. "The outbreak's much less severe out there, and it'll give us an opportunity to find some other people who are immune so we can work to defend ourselves."

"But Louis," Zoey said, "who knows who's immune and who's not? Hell, the four people we've just met tonight might not be immune. We could be making them sick right now!"

"Uh, cupcake," Nick said, "hate to break it to you, but I've been puked on and bitten way too many times to not turn into some flesh-eating maniac by now, so you ain't getting rid of me that easy."

"The news company I worked for specifically chose me to go down to Georgia because I was immune," Rochelle added, "and I think what Nick said applies to Ellis and Coach as well."

"Well we know for a fact that we're still carriers," Zoey said, "and any place that has survivors is a place we might contaminate if we decided to be selfish enough to try to settle down. Whatever we decide, we're gonna have to get by on our own."

"Why the hell should we care about the people we 'might' infect?" Nick asked. "They're probably gonna get hit with the illness no matter what the fuck we do, so I think that argument is superfluous. Did you get that word right on your SAT test, sweetie?"

"Go to hell," Zoey barked.

"Nick, why don't you shut the fuck up and quit acting like such an asshole?" Rochelle asked. "She has a point. If it turned out more innocent people got sick because we ended up bringing the outbreak to their community, I don't want something like that on my conscience."

"Not even if it meant we could save ourselves?" Francis asked. "To hell with everyone else, it's every man for himself."

"Uh, guys?" Ellis asked meekly.

"And what happens if we're the last ones standing?" Rochelle asked. "How the hell are we supposed to get food and water on our own? None of us knows jack shit about living off the land."

"Well then I guess we'll have to figure it out as we go," Francis said. "Hell, I don't think being a farmer could be that hard, could it? The cavemen had to start somewhere, right?"

"Please, do you even know what the hell you're talking about?" Nick asked. "Besides, didn't they say this infection originated in the US? What's stopping us from hijacking a plane and flying out to Europe? Boom, zombie problem solved."

"Have you been listening to anything I've been saying?" Zoey asked. "The four of us are _carriers_. That means we'll be bringing the Green Flu with us no matter where we go. And I for one do _not_ want to be the reason this outbreak spreads worldwide, do you?"

"Guys?" Ellis asked.

"Well what the fuck else are we gonna do?" Nick asked. "As far as I'm concerned, the US is shot to shit, and it ain't ever coming back. We head out to Europe, there might still be civilization out there. None of this 'living off the land' shit, I want to get back to society."

"And totally destroy it in the process," Zoey said. "Seems fair."

"Hey, everybody!" Louis yelled. "I think Ellis here has something to say."

"Ah, geez, Louis, I don't think anyone wants to hear what my opinion is."

"Of course we do," Zoey said. "What are your thoughts? Can't be any worse than anything Nick's been saying."

"Well, shucks, that's mighty kind of you to say, Zoey," Ellis said, blushing. "Well, um, I guess my point is we don't have all the information we need. We need to find some way to tune into some emergency broadcasts, get a news feed or something. Hell, maybe people are posting stuff on Facebook, what do I know? We don't have all the cards, so we should learn as much as we can before we make any decisions."

"That's a great idea, Ellis!" Louis said. "Bill, did you get a chance to see if there were any ham radios left lying around here?"

"Not that I could find," Bill said, "but I think Ellis has the right idea. Perhaps there are some evacuation plans that we aren't even aware of. Maybe there's a community of immune people that are broadcasting out for people to come to them. We won't know until we get all the information we can."

"So now what, we just hope we stumble across a ham radio?" Nick asked.

"You sure the radio in Jimmy Gibbs' car wasn't working?" Coach asked Ellis.

"I'm positive. The first thing I tried to do was tune into my favorite station. WSGA out of Hinesville, all country music, all day and all night."

Nick stuck his finger in his mouth and made a fake gagging noise. Ellis glared at him.

"Well, we're in a pretty major city right here," Rochelle said. "Perhaps there's a communication tower somewhere nearby. They'd surely have some radio equipment near one of those things, right?"

"That's a long shot at best," Bill said, "but right now it looks like we don't have any better options. We'll set out tomorrow morning for the nearest radio tower, that's if we can even find one out here."

"Then it's settled," Coach said. "Come on, y'all, let's all gather around for a prayer."

Ellis and Rochelle gathered around Coach. Bill, Zoey, Louis, and Francis joined them as well, but Nick stayed in the corner away from the newly gathered circle of survivors.

"You joining in, Nick?" Louis asked.

"Had enough of that shit growing up with a strict Catholic mother," Nick said. "I ain't buying religion, not after the shit we've had to go through the past couple of weeks."

"Suit yourself," Coach said. "Everyone else, close your eyes."

The other six survivors in the circle shut their eyes and held their heads down.

"Dear Lord," Coach said, "we thank you for this safehouse, we thank you for the supplies of ammunition and food to get us through the night. We're grateful to meet new friends along our journey through this outbreak, and we pray that we get through this safely and find a place to settle down and restart our lives. Continue to guide our path and bring us a safe journey, and we will forever be in your debt. Amen."

"Amen," the other six survivors whispered.

The survivors broke off into their own separate areas in the safehouse. Bill sat down in front of the door to the safehouse, looking out the window. Zoey started to chat with Louis about how they would go about finding a radio tower. Ellis couldn't help but stare at her as he crawled over to Rochelle.

"She is so pretty," Ellis whispered, making sure he wouldn't be overheard.

"Zoey?" Rochelle asked. "Yeah, she's pretty cute, I guess. Why don't you go talk to her?"

"Aw, hell, I wouldn't know what to say," Ellis said nervously, continuing to glance over in Zoey's direction, hoping she wouldn't catch him staring.

"Hey," Rochelle said, gently turning Ellis's head away from Zoey. "You're not gonna do yourself any favors if you keep staring at her like that. She's just gonna think you're creepy."

"What am I gonna do?" Ellis asked. "I wanna impress her, but my stomach's squirming and I get all clammy and I'm gonna look like an idiot."

"Ellis, you've been killing zombies for the better part of two weeks, and you're afraid to talk to a girl?" Rochelle asked. "She was the one who encouraged you to speak up when you were doubting yourself. She's obviously interested in what you have to say."

"So do you think she likes me?" Ellis asked. "How do I know for sure?"

"You just gotta stick your neck out there," Rochelle responded. "Just relax and be yourself. If she doesn't like you, big deal. There's plenty of other fish in the sea."

"Uh...no there ain't," Ellis said. "Zombie apocalypse, remember?"

"Well, shit," Rochelle said. "You're right. But hey, that's good news, isn't it? She can't really afford to be too picky, now, can she?"

"Wait, what are you saying?" Ellis asked.

"Think about it. Do you honestly think she'd go for Nick?"

"You've got a good point there," Ellis said. "And Bill and Coach are like older than dirt, so unless she's into that kind of thing, I guess that's not happening either. What about the other two guys she's been with? I mean, she's talking to one of 'em right now."

"I think something might have happened by now if it was gonna be one of those two guys," Rochelle said. "Although, I gotta say, lose the vest on Francis, he ain't too bad to look at."

"Yeah, guy seems alright," Ellis said. "Well, I guess the math's on my side, now, ain't it?"

"That's the spirit!" Rochelle said. "You go over and talk to Zoey and Louis, give yourself an in."

"What are you gonna do?"

"I'm doing the same thing you're doing. Life's too short and I'm starting to run out of options."

Rochelle crawled away from Ellis over towards Francis. Ellis saw her hit him up for some conversation, and they seemed to be hitting it off right away, from the relaxed expressions on their faces. Ellis took a deep breath and steeled himself, then crawled over to Zoey and Louis.

"Oh, good, glad you're here," Zoey said, welcoming Ellis into her conversation with Louis. "Love the plan, but we're a little unsure how we're gonna find a radio tower."

"They're usually on the outskirts of towns like these," Louis said, "and a lot of the times for aesthetic reasons they make them look like trees to minimize the effect on people's viewpoints. So how do you think we're gonna find one?"

"Um…" Ellis said, feeling pressured and put on the spot. "Well we gotta have access to some kind of map or something, don't we? Might be able to figure it out if we got our bearings."

"Of course, duh," Zoey said. "Why didn't I think of that? There's a map on the table over there. Come on."

Zoey led Ellis and Louis over to the map on the table. It didn't take long for the three of them to find the nearest radio tower.

"There's one just on the outskirts of town!" Louis said. "Let's go tell Bill. We'll be able to plot out a route right to it."

"Uh, sure," Ellis said.

"Hey, Bill," Louis said as he, Zoey, and Ellis approached him. "Look at this. The map shows us that there's a radio tower just on the outskirts of town. See? Right there." Louis pointed at the location on the map.

"Let me see that," Bill said. He pulled the map close and looked intently at the area Louis had been pointing to. He was able to see the name of the radio tower.

"Okay, this is good news. We now have a way to get directly there. We'll have to take this map with us so we don't get lost trying to find our way there. Think you can hold onto it, son?"

It took Ellis a minute to realize Bill had been aiming the question at him. "Who, me? Well, I mean, I guess I could take care of it. I haven't been on too many road trips, so I ain't the greatest with reading maps."

"It was your idea," Louis said, "so you should be the one with the honor of holding the map."

"Yeah, just make sure you don't drop it in Boomer bile or anything," Zoey said with a chuckle, patting Ellis on the shoulder. A rush of excitement came to Ellis at the unexpected contact.

"Study that map well, find the best path out of here, and we'll follow it to the nose so we can get to that radio tower," Bill said.

"I'll do my best, sir," Ellis said.

Feeling more confident, Ellis joined Zoey as the three of them stepped away from Bill. Louis went over to talk to Coach, while Nick was left sulking in the corner.

"You wanna look over the map with me?" Ellis asked Zoey.

"Sure, can't have too many pairs of eyes studying a map."

Because of the size of the map, the two of them had to sit in fairly close proximity in order to both have a good view of it. Ellis's stomach was squirming uncomfortably, but he fought back the nerves as much as he could.

"Hm, it looks like there's only a few roads that lead out of town," Zoey said, tracing her finger across a road that cut directly through what appeared to be the downtown area.

"That's the road we drove in on," Ellis said. "Look, see? The train tracks run right alongside it."

"Oh yeah, that makes sense," Zoey said. "Yeah, it looks like that road's our best option. It's probably a bit more open than we would like, though, so I bet we'd have company if we went that way."

"Well, there's plenty of side roads and alleys we can go through if we get swarmed," Ellis said. "Keep the zombies from surrounding us on all sides, I guess."

"Yeah, there's definitely room to improvise," Zoey said. "I think you and I will be pretty good map readers tomorrow. I can help out in case you get a little lost."

"You'd do that? Well, thank you kindly, ma'am."

"Ma'am?" Zoey asked, laughing. "I'm eighteen years old, you don't have to call me ma'am."

"Was just trying to be polite," Ellis said with a chuckle.

"How old are you?" she asked.

"Twenty-three," Ellis said. "I turn twenty-four in a couple months or so, but it's hard to keep track of the days during an apocalypse."

"Yeah, I understand," Zoey said. "My birthday's right around Christmastime."

"Oh, so you probably got gypped on presents as a kid," Ellis said. "That must have sucked."

"Well, I was an only child, so it wasn't all that bad," she said. "I didn't have siblings to compare it to. And to think the biggest problems I had as a kid were that my mom and dad didn't give me the Barbie doll I wanted. Seems pretty silly now, don't you think?"

"Sure does," Ellis said. "Say, whatever happened to your folks? They just get infected, or…?"

Zoey's face drooped in sadness, causing Ellis immediate concern and regret.

"Oh, I'm sorry, forget I asked," he said.

"No, it's okay," she said. "You couldn't have known. It's not really something I want to get into right now."

"Shit," Ellis said. "Well, I promise I won't bring it up again."

"That'd be great, thanks," Zoey said, her spirits lifting a little as she gave Ellis a timid smile.

As everyone else around him was talking, Nick was starting to feel restless. He sighed and crawled over to the only man who was unoccupied with conversation.

"Hey old man, how's it hanging?" he asked Bill awkwardly as he settled down across from him.

"I'm tired, kid," Bill said. "Real tired."

"Well, I mean, you held your own out there with the rest of us," Nick said, "and you're like, what, a hundred years old?"

"Gee, thanks for the backhanded compliment," Bill said, but he gave Nick a smirk to let him know there were no hard feelings. "Shame about your suit. That looks like it cost a lot."

Nick looked down to see that his suit was torn up on the fringes and covered in dirt and muck. "Yeah, we should stop by a dry cleaners on the way out of town," he joked.

"You might be happy to know that kid Ellis you drove here with was able to find a radio tower on the map I glanced over when we first came into the safehouse," Bill said. "Maybe it's just my prejudice, but I didn't expect him to be so sharp-minded."

"Kid's normally a dumbass, if you ask me," Nick said. "Boomer walked into our path in the hotel where the four of us met, and Rochelle had distinctly warned us that they would explode and cover us in that vomit and shit. But Ellis is the kind of kid to shoot first and ask questions later, so he got the four of us covered pretty good. We had to make a stand in a hotel closet so the zombies wouldn't surround us."

"Well, he's young, probably a bit trigger-happy," Bill said. "I'm sure he knows better now."

"I'll be honest with you, old man, I thought the kid was dead weight until now," Nick said. "He held his own though, he just needs to be more careful."

"Maybe you can teach him to control his reflexes," Bill suggested.

"I think that kid needs some Adderall or something," Nick said. "He had to have been an ADHD case growing up."

"Really now?" Bill asked. "What makes you so sure?"

"I don't know, just this vibe I get," Nick said. "I can sense people's vibe, you know? Get a feel for them before I even know them. It's a talent of mine."

"Sure it is," Bill said, laughing heartily.

"You think that's funny, old man?"

"Yeah, actually. You're talking about vibes, I can read your vibe from a mile away. You put on this coarse 'Fuck all of you, I don't give a shit' attitude, but I bet you're pretty insecure deep down, mister macho man."

"Bullshit. If you knew the shit I had to deal with growing up, you'd be just as callous as I am."

"I fought in 'Nam son. You think you've seen hell? I lived it."

"Okay, old man. How does it compare to this apocalypse?"

"Worse. At least the enemies I have to kill now don't have a trace of humanity left in them," he said. "And I'm a hell of a lot older than I was when they drafted me, so I know what to expect now. Can't get too relaxed, though, or these zombies will eat you alive."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Nick said. "You ain't half bad, old man. I could get used to talking to you."

"Son, just do me a favor, and lay off with the attitude a bit," Bill requested. "There's enough shit to deal with with all the zombies around, we don't need shit talk stirring the pot."

"Maybe for you, old man, but if anyone else tries to get on my nerves, I ain't holding back," Nick said. "Been burned way too many times. You can't trust anyone, especially when it's every man for himself."

"Well we take care of our own," Bill reminded him. "I came with my group of survivors, and they've become like family to me. You want to earn that right? You better step up to the plate, because the second you lag behind, I ain't coming back to pick your sorry ass off the pavement."

"The feeling's mutual," Nick said, "but trust me, you won't have a problem with me keeping up. I know how to take care of myself."

"Good to hear," Bill said.

Meanwhile, Francis and Rochelle were hitting it off quite well.

"You know, I probably shouldn't say this, but I've always been attracted to bad boys," Rochelle said. "You know the type."

"Hell, I _am_ the type!" Francis said with a laugh.

"That's the point!" Rochelle said, and the two of them started laughing.

"Oh wait, you're serious?" Francis asked once the laughter had died down.

"Normally I'd wait for the guy to ask me out," Rochelle said, "but we don't have time for that bullshit in a zombie apocalypse. We just need to find ourselves a safe place and a little quiet time, and then I think we can really get to know each other."

"Wow, you sure are forward," Francis said with a chuckle. He looked over at Zoey and Ellis talking. "What's up with those two?"

"Young love," Rochelle said, "or at least I hope so. The poor kid could barely talk to girls when I met him. Look at him now."

"Yeah, but they're, like, a total mismatch," Francis remarked. "She was going to college and I'd bet money he didn't even graduate middle school."

"Leave him alone, Francis," Rochelle said, playfully slapping him on the arm. "Poor kid's been through enough already. Let him have this one."

"That ain't up to me, sweetheart," Francis said. "Here's hoping he can keep Zoey interested. I've really gotten to know her past couple of weeks, she ain't one to take bullshit from anyone. Tough gal. Hell, if I was a little bit younger, I mean I can kinda see the attraction."

"I see. So that makes me old, then?"

"What, I didn't say that!" Francis said, holding his hands up defensively. "I ain't saying anything about your age. But Zoey's eighteen and she looks a hell of a lot younger than that. Jail bait, if you know what I mean."

"Well, you sure wouldn't have that problem with me," Rochelle said with a wink. Francis chuckled.

"Hey folks!" Bill said, beckoning everyone towards him. The other survivors circled around. "I think after the hell we went through today we deserve a little grub. There's a good amount of food here, but be conservative. We don't know how long we need it to last. After that we should get some shut-eye. Sounds good?"

"Yes, sir," Ellis said. "Boy, I could sure go for one of those cans of beans."

"Hope you like 'em cold," Nick said with a laugh. "You see a microwave anywhere?"

"Hey, I'll take what I can get," Ellis said. "Can't afford to be picky, am I right?"

"Suppose not," Nick said as the survivors broke the circle to get their food.


	4. Chapter 4

With the survivors having fed themselves just enough to get by for the night, seven of them tried to make themselves comfortable on the floor of the safehouse in order to try to fall asleep. Bill, however, stayed sitting upright, M16 in his hands in case a zombie tried to break down the door.

"Taking first watch, huh?" Coach asked him.

"Probably the only watch," Bill said. "You folks all need your rest. I'll be fine." He went to light up another cigarette before realizing it was his last one. "Shit, I gotta find me some more smokes."

"That's the least of our problems," Coach said with a chuckle. "Alright, you take care of yourself, Bill, and thanks for being on the lookout."

"You're welcome," Bill said gruffly as Coach laid down to fall asleep.

Chatter died down as the seven survivors slowly began to drift off. Bill knew he should be keeping an eye on the outside, but his attention was focused on Zoey, who was lying down next to Ellis. Her night terrors from the last time they had slept were of great concern to him, partly out of curiosity for what was causing them, and partly out of worry for her well-being. So far, though, she seemed to be resting in relative comfort.

Bill puffed carefully away on his last cigarette, trying to make it last as long as possible. He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right knee, a knee that had been injured in Vietnam when shrapnel had pierced him. He started rubbing it, trying to knead the pain away, but he knew from experience the soreness was going to persist for as long as it was willing before going away. He wasn't going to waste a pain pill on this old wartime injury, not when much worse injuries could be sustained out in the battlefield.

Hell, it is a battlefield out there, Bill thought to himself. These kids haven't seen anything like this. Especially the young ones. His eyes glanced over at Zoey and Ellis again. Poor kids, they had their whole lives ahead of them, and look at the shit we're in now. At least I had my time before the outbreak. But what the fuck did I end up doing with my life? I never raised a family, I just sat there with my stiff knee and let my life slip right past me.

A low groaning from outside diverted his attention away from his own thoughts. The sickly groan sounded all too familiar to him. Boomer roaming around out there. At least we know it can't get in. He rose as quickly as his bad knee would allow to take a look outside, just in case. Indeed, he saw the bloated zombie rambling around, oblivious to the survivors inside the safehouse. The skin on his belly looked sunburned, as if the Boomer had been out in the sun all day, and a creamy yellow pus was dripping from it. I haven't seen that shit before, Bill thought. Hope that thing stays the hell away from me, I don't wanna know what that pus does.

With the coast evidently clear, Bill slowly lowered himself back to a sitting position, leaning against the wall for support. His eyes began to get droopy, but he couldn't let himself fall asleep while he was on watch. His thoughts slowly became a blur until a noise alerted him.

"Hey, old timer," Francis said, startling Bill awake.

"Francis, Christ, don't sneak up on me like that," Bill muttered.

"I'm taking over your watch. Noticed you starting to doze off, we can't have that. Someone's gotta keep an eye on the outside."

"And you're gonna be the one to do it?" Bill asked.

"For God's sake, I'm not some trigger-happy lug nut. You know me better than that. Get yourself some shut-eye or you're gonna regret it in the morning."

"Fine, you can take over," Bill said. "I'm getting too old for this shit."

"Yeah, well, you haven't slowed us down too much so far," Francis said with a chuckle.

"Gee, thanks. How's that Rochelle girl I saw you talking to earlier?"

Francis smiled and shook his head knowingly. "Let's just say if it came down to repopulating the Earth, I know exactly where to start."

"Sounds terrific," Bill said with a laugh. He looked over at Zoey again, and Francis followed his gaze as well.

"You think she's doing alright?" Bill asked.

"She'll be fine," Francis said. "Girl's seen a ton of zombie flicks. She's like a walking dictionary on all things zombie."

"You know what I'm talking about, Francis. What about the nightmare she had on the train?"

"Oh, you're still on about that? Doesn't look like it's a problem anymore, she's out like a light now. Probably because her new boyfriend's sleeping right next to her."

"Keep your voice down, it's too early to tell where that's going," Bill said.

"Whatever, just do yourself a favor and get some shut-eye," Francis said, helping Bill lay down. "Let old Francis keep an eye out for Tanks and Smokers and all that shit."

"Whatever you say," Bill said. "See you in the morning."

"Better hope so," Francis said.

* * *

The night passed uneventfully, and as the day broke the survivors woke up naturally on their own. Francis had fallen asleep on the watch, and Bill grabbed his shoulder and shook him awake.

"Dammit, Francis, I knew I shouldn't have trusted you!" Bill yelled. "What happened to keeping watch?"

"Hey, you're all alive, aren't you? I'd say that's a job well done."

"Jesus, next time I'm putting Louis on duty."

"Oh, Francis, I was just getting to like you, too," Rochelle teased. "What made you do an irresponsible thing like that?"

"Hey, look, I need sleep, too. Can't fight against basic bodily functions."

"Speaking of that, where the fuck am I supposed to take my morning shit?" Nick asked. "Is there a bucket I can squat over, or do I have to dig a hole in the dirt outside?"

"That's gross, dude," Ellis said.

"There's probably a bathroom in the building next door," Rochelle said, "but you're gonna have to fend off some zombies if you wanna get there."

"I couldn't give two fucks about the zombies," Nick said, "those damned beans went right through me. I'll see you shitheads in a few minutes." Nick opened the door to the outside in search of the bathroom, and Rochelle closed it and put the bar back on to keep it locked.

"For a guy who wears nice suits, that guy is one nasty dude," Louis griped.

"He takes some getting used to," Rochelle said, "but I promise he gets slightly more tolerable with time."

"How slightly?" Louis asked.

Rochelle held up two fingers about an inch apart.

"That doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence," Louis said.

They suddenly heard a chorus of guttural roars coming from the outside. On either side of the safehouse, zombies started to gather, running towards and banging at the doors.

"Where the hell did these guys come from?" Francis asked.

"Doesn't matter, we have to get out of here now," Bill said. "Grab as much food as you can carry and let's go. We have to head out for that radio tower. You got the map, Ellis?"

"Right here," Ellis said, holding out the map before putting it in his pocket.

"Okay, let's clear the way before opening this door. Everyone with an automatic, on me!"

Louis and Rochelle gathered next to Bill, and the three of them fired through the bars on the safehouse door at the zombies crowded in front of it. The zombies all fell down in front of the door, and as the horde died down the survivors decided to make their move.

"Everyone help push this door open!" Bill ordered. With the cluster of dead Infected in front of the door, it made it difficult to push open. Louis, Francis, Ellis, and Coach pushed at the door until it opened enough for everyone to get through.

"Shit, where the hell is Nick?" Rochelle asked.

"You would not believe what I just had to go through," he called, almost as if on cue. His rifle was smoking at the tip. "I was in the bathroom doing my business and a fucking Spitter stormed in and hocked a loogie at me while I was on the John. I had to get my feet off the floor so that burning goo shit wouldn't melt my shoes."

"Did you kill her?" Rochelle asked.

"Yeah, once I was done taking a shit I did. Fucking nasty bitch. You ever seen Spitters up in Pennsylvania?"

"Um...no," Zoey said, the first person to respond to Nick's question.

"Ugly trailer-trash looking motherfuckers, they make Witches look attractive by comparison."

Another guttural roar sounded, and the sound of zombies scrambling towards them had the survivors on edge.

"Ellis, which way are we going according to that damn map?" Bill yelled.

"Um, uh..." Ellis said, fumbling with the map and trying to get his bearings. Zoey came over and looked at the map as well.

"Up to that street over there!" she called out, pointing straight ahead. "Then we take a right."

"Better move it, people!" Bill yelled, shooting at a few zombies as he led the way up the hill to the street Zoey had mentioned.

Arranged in a circle so they could see all sides, the survivors were able to keep the zombies at bay. Zoey essentially took over map-reading duties as they made their way down the small street which would lead to the main road out of town. Suddenly a door to their left got knocked down and a Boomer was there about to hurl his bile at them.

"Back up people!" Bill yelled. The survivors moved back as quickly as they could, then Coach fired a shot at the Boomer's bloated stomach. The Boomer blew up, its body parts flying off in all different directions. A foul stench emanated from the dead corpse and yellow pus splattered on Coach's shirt and khakis.

"Oh, hell, what is this shit on me?" Coach asked, trying to brush the pus off of himself with his hand.

"That don't look like your average Boomer bile," Nick warned. "Haven't seen that shit before."

"I saw it leaking out of a Boomer last night," Bill said, "but I have no idea what it does."

"It's really sticky," Coach said, trying to pull his hand away from his shirt only to find the pus stretching almost like a thick wad of gum.

"Oh, Jesus," Rochelle said. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

"Rochelle, come on now, we've seen way worse than this," Nick said. "It doesn't look like it's attracting any zombies, so why don't you just leave it alone?" 

"I'd be glad to, Nick," Coach said tersely, "if the shit would leave me alone first. My hand's stuck to it."

"Oh, that shit ain't right," Ellis said, watching Coach struggle with the thick pus on his shirt.

"What the hell am I supposed to do about this?" Coach asked.

"Ignore it for now," Bill said. "Make sure nobody else touches that shit. We're short a gun now, and we can't afford to be short too many more."

They turned a corner and were alarmed to see a dead man lying on the ground. The corpse looked as though it had been out in the sun for a while, but what was more ominous was the hardened yellow substance dried on his shirt.

"Hey, that looks like the shit I'm covered in," Coach commented. "So you're telling me this shit will dry up if I wait long enough?"

"That looks to be the case," Bill said. "We still don't know if we can get that shit off of you once it dries though."

"Hey fellas, over here!" Ellis called. "Found myself a machete." He picked it up and started swinging it to get a feel for how to handle it. "Oh, this feels right," he said with a smile.

"Can I see that for a second, son?" Bill asked.

"Hell know, you can find your own machete," Ellis said.

"I'll give it right back, you nimrod. I just need to test something first."

"Alright then, but only for a second!"

Bill took the machete from Ellis and slashed at the dried pus on the man's corpse. The machete broke right through and chipped some of it off. Bill continued to hack away until the rest of the pus had been cut away from the corpse.

"Ellis, this was a damned good find," Bill said, giving the knife back to him. "We'll be able to free Coach from that shit once it dries up."

"Ah, hell, how long do I gotta wait till that happens?" Coach grumbled.

"Hopefully not too long," Bill said. "The sun's probably what dried up the pus on that man's body, and it looks like the sun's beating down strong today, so I think it should take maybe a few hours at the most."

"Hours?" Coach asked. "Whatever, I guess I'll have to wait."

"We'll have to make sure none of the other zombies gets the jump on him," Rochelle remarked. "Otherwise it could get stuck to him, and then we're really fucked."

"Thanks, Rochelle. I feel so much better now," Coach said.

"No need to feel so down!" Louis remarked. "You've got seven gunners watching your back. We'll make sure nothing bad happens to you."

"Mr. Positive's at it again," Francis said, rolling his eyes.

"Will you quit your yapping?" Bill ordered. "I think I hear a Hunter."

The survivors fell silent, and they indeed heard the low grumbling that was associated with the Hunter.

"Last time it attacked us without warning," Zoey whispered. "Keep your eyes open."

They looked through all the buildings' windows as they steadily crept forward down the narrow street. Bill kept an eye on the rooftops, and suddenly he saw the Hunter diving towards him.

"He's there!" he yelled, trying to shoot the Hunter in midair. It fell on top of him and started clawing into his chest. "Get this thing off me!" he yelled.

"I got it!" Ellis said, and he aimed his machete carefully and beheaded the zombie, whose body keeled over once his head had been lopped off.

"That's a pleasant sight," Nick remarked as the Hunter's head rolled in front of him. The hood had fallen off after being severed, and the head was finally revealed to them in full daylight.

"Oh shit, it looks like his whole head got burnt!" Nick commented. "And it's totally bald."

"And I thought they were creepy looking with the hood on," Rochelle said as she helped Bill up. "You okay, soldier?"

"A little sore," Bill said, "and I landed on my bad knee funny. I'm gonna use some pills. I can barely walk."

"You're not using pills," Zoey said. "I'm giving you my first aid kit."

"Kid, you're gonna need that a lot more than I will. I'll be fine."

"No, you won't. Those are serious wounds on your chest and they need to be patched up. I know we've been fighting a lot lately, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna leave you behind. We take care of our own, remember?"

Bill fell silent, and didn't object when Zoey started patching him up.

"How saccharine," Nick commented.

Rochelle hit him on the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" he asked.

"Coach, how's it going with that pus? You think I can break it off now?" Ellis asked.

"Nah, this shit's still gooey as hell. You'll just get your machete stuck in it. Be patient, it'll dry eventually."

Francis and Rochelle were keeping their eyes on all sides, making sure no other zombies came to ambush them in the alley. Francis started to hear a low grunting sound.

"The fuck is that?" he asked. "Sounds like a dying cow."

"Oh shit, not one of these things," Rochelle said.

"All patched up," Zoey said, helping Bill stand upright. "Feeling better?"

"I will be," Bill said, "after we found out what the hell is making that groaning sound."

"Maybe it's Coach's stomach," Nick said with a laugh.

"No, you idiot," Rochelle said tersely. "That's a Charger."

"A what?" Francis asked. He turned behind him and saw the zombie with the hefty right arm. When the Charger looked back at him, he made a guttural mooing sound and started running forward at breakneck speed.

"Shit!" Francis yelled as he dove out of the way. The Charger blew right past him and into the wall of the building behind him. It started to stagger around as if it was dizzy.

"Now, now, shoot the Charger!" Rochelle ordered. She and Francis unloaded their weapons, and the Charger soon fell limp to the ground.

"And what would have happened if that thing had gotten me?" Francis asked.

"A concussion, if you're lucky," Rochelle said.

"And what if I'm unlucky?" Francis asked.

"Honey, you don't want to know," Rochelle said, patting Francis on the arm. He chuckled.

"Shit, there's zombies everywhere," Ellis said. "We've gotta keep moving."

"Lead the way, son," Bill said. "You've got the map."

"Okay, uh...this way!" Ellis called, leading them forward down to the end of the street. They came out to a much wider street running perpendicular to the one they had been on, and they saw old evacuation signs leading them out of town.

"Are those signs pointing in the direction we want to go?" Bill asked.

Zoey went over to Ellis and looked at the map. "Looks like they are," she said. "It'll be a slight detour once we leave the city, but for now those signs are our best means of navigation."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Francis asked. "Follow the signs!"

They made their way down the streets, paying careful attention to the map and keeping an eye out for zombies. They didn't run into Special Infected, but there were plenty of Commons to kill between them and the radio tower. Pretty soon, though, it became relatively quiet, with few zombies in sight.

"It's quiet," Ellis noticed, looking back down at the map to double check where they were.

"Too quiet," Zoey replied, keeping her pistols held up.

Suddenly they heard a smashing noise, and a car came hurdling towards them through the air.

"Watch out!" Coach yelled.

The car landed about a couple of feet in front of them, but then the survivors saw a Tank barreling towards them, making the ground shake as he charged.

"Shit!" Nick yelled as the Tank charged towards him. He ran backwards as fast as he could while shooting his hunting rifle, and as the Tank got closer the other survivors began shooting as well. The Tank was too fast for Nick to escape, though, as he took a swipe at him and sent him hurdling through a window into a dark building.

"Nick!" Ellis yelled, alerting the Tank and making it run towards him instead.

"Oh hell no," Rochelle said. "Over here, you ugly son of a bitch!"

"Rochelle, are you crazy?" Ellis asked.

The Tank was indiscriminate in who he attacked, but it seemed with the survivors split up that he couldn't decide on a target. He lifted up a chunk of the road and hurled it at Francis, who ducked as it narrowly flew over his head.

"Shit, I hate these things!" he yelled.

"Somebody please tell me this thing is on his last legs," Zoey pleaded.

Suddenly they saw a Molotov cocktail fly through the air and hit the Tank dead on, setting it ablaze.

"Where did that come from?" Rochelle asked.

"Over here, princess," Nick teased, crawling out of the building he had fallen into, appearing as though he was in pain. More importantly, the Tank was in pain as well, but it still charged forward towards Louis this time. Louis unloaded his submachine gun into the Tank, and it finally fell over dead.

"Nice shot, son," Bill said.

"Here, found a couple more in that building you guys can hang onto," Nick said, passing cocktails out to Francis, Ellis, and Louis. "Can someone patch me up with my First Aid kit? I feel like shit."

"I gotcha, Nick," Ellis said, taking the kit from Nick and beginning to wrap him up. Zoey looked at the map and smiled.

"We're about to leave town," she said, "straight ahead, and then the radio tower is not too far from there. We've almost made it, guys."

"Almost isn't gonna cut it," Bill said.

"Let's get our asses moving then," Nick said. "I hate this fucking city and I want to be out as quickly as possible."

After the Tank had been taken out, there were few other zombies around, just some stragglers dispatched by a few bullets. They finally reached the outskirts of town and saw woods up ahead of them.

"We have to be careful," Bill warned the others. "Once we step foot in those woods, it could get real easy to get lost."

"It's okay, Bill. Look!" Louis pointed upwards, and they saw that one of the tops of the trees looked artificial, surrounded by real looking trees. "If we keep our bearings, we won't get lost getting to that tower."

"Okay, then, hopefully you're right, Louis," Bill said. "Let's move, people."

As they made their way through the woods, they started to hear a hacking cough.

"God damn Smoker," Coach whispered. "Keep an eye out."

Louis peered over and saw a gray haze emanating behind a tree. "I think he's there," he whispered.

Sure enough, the Smoker stepped out from behind the tree. Louis took aim at his head and dispatched it quickly, sending smoke into the air where he had been standing. The shots triggered a flock of birds to fly from out of the trees, cawing loudly and making all kinds of noises.

"Oh, shit, that can't be good," Ellis said.

"Keep moving, people," Bill said, but then they heard zombies hollering and making their way towards them through the trees. "Keep moving and keep firing!"

They hustled as quickly as they could through the woods, but the Infected were quicker, and they had to dispatch them as they moved towards the radio tower. A couple of zombies almost overran Coach, but Ellis dispatched them with his machete.

"Now or never, buddy," Ellis said to Coach, taking a swipe at the pus that looked like it had dried up. Indeed it had, as it began to chip off, and after a few more swipes Coach was finally freed from it.

"Oh hell yes!" he called as he fired his shotgun at some zombies that were approaching Ellis from behind.

"Thanks man," Ellis said.

"Thank you, Ellis," Coach reciprocated.

As the survivors made their way to the radio tower, the horde of zombies began to thin, and once they arrived at the base there were none left.

"Don't waste any time, people, find some communication devices and let's hear what the hell's been going on," Bill ordered. They entered the radio tower, and a foul stench hit them. It was also pitch black inside, so they had to use their flashlights to look around.

What they saw through the darkness was a place that appeared totally abandoned. They searched the premises and found a few broken radios on the floor, but what concerned them most were the dead corpses of what appeared to be employees who had been working there.

"Shit, what the fuck happened to these guys?" Ellis asked.

"Doesn't matter," Nick said, "because we aren't gonna be able to find a God damned working radio in here. This whole trip was a waste of time."

"Are you serious?" Rochelle asked with a groan.

"Looks like Nick's right," Louis said, "unfortunately. There's nothing here."

"We better get the hell out of here then," Bill said. "I don't want to be helpless here in the darkness in case a Hunter decides to jump us."

They made their way back outside, and it was already starting to grow dark as the day was coming to a close.

"Well, I hope you liked camping as a kid," Nick said, "because it looks like we aren't going anywhere else tonight."

"Dammit, I thought this was a good idea, too," Ellis said.

Zoey gave him a pat on the back. "We couldn't have known better, Ellis. This wasn't anyone's fault."

"Ah, hell, guess you have a point, Zoey," Ellis said with a smile.

"Come on, you two lovebirds," Nick teased. "Time to set up camp somewhere where the big bad zombies won't eat us alive."

Zoey and Ellis blushed as they followed the other survivors, looking for a place where they could camp out for the night. They were disgruntled that the day had been a waste, but determined to figure out what their next move was. Hopefully it would be one that would keep them alive.


End file.
